BEIJING，September 7 (TMTPOST)— Tesla’s Chinese rival NIO Inc maintained optimism in sales this year，especially for its latest affordable electric vehicle model ET5，a Model 3’s upcoming rival.
Source: Visual China
The Covid-19 related disruptions from July to August did impact vehicle quality and accordingly，the delivery in the third quarter，however，effect of the pandemic on production and delivery currently is under control in general，so NIO reconfirmed its delivery target which was set in the beginning of the year，and is very confident on the delivery outlook in the fourth quarter，the founder and CEO William Bin Li said in an earnings call on Wednesday.
As to ET5，Li believes it would become a huge hit given consumers’ high expectations. Li noted it is very hard to tell production of ET5 because of headwinds beyond NIO’s control，but NIO expects stable growth of delivery volume with consecutive monthly records in the last quarter of the year since the model is entering production ramp-up. December will see more than 10,000 units of delivery，he added.
In the quarter ended June 30，NIO revenue rose 21.8% year-over-year (YoY) to RMB10.29 billion (US$1.537 billion)，beating the analysts’ expectation of RMB9.667 billion，while loss from operation widened 272.8% YoY to RMB2.85 billion，missing the expected loss of RMB 2.6 billion.
NIO delivered 25,059 vehicles in the second quarter，representing a 2.8% month-over-month (MoM) decrease and a YoY increase of 14.4%. The company forecasted the current quarterly to ship 31,000 units to 33,000 units，less than the Wall Street estimated 38,000 units. But the new models bring hope that NIO may have upbeat performance. ES7，NIO’s first mid-large five-seater smart electric SUV based on the platform NIO Technology 2.0 (NT2.0)，has become a new favorite of the market，as the EV maker witnessed a robust order inflow for the ES7 and started its deliveries at scale in August，according to William Li. Li also noted his company looks forward to starting the mass production and delivery of the ET5 in late September.